Dictionary Finds: the Curious Case of the Question Mark

اِستِفهام

root: ف-ه-م / form X verbal noun / definition: inquiry, question

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For me, this week has been characterised by a lovely long chat in a cosy café, arranging a flurry of travel vaccinations, and adding some fresh ideas to my growing list of side hustles.

I don’t remember what I was doing, however, when I screenshotted a certain intriguing dictionary entry many months ago—but I’m glad I stumbled again upon this strange little gem.

The entry can be found under the reduplicated quadriliteral root س-ك-س-ك on page 487 of the Hans Wehr:

There it is: سكسكة suksuka wren (?)

Notice anything unusual?

Well, you won’t find “(?)” in the list of symbols and abbreviations in the Hans Wehr, and that’s because this is the only place in the dictionary that it occurs!

Obviously Wehr was in a bit of doubt about this definition and, like Wehr, I’m no bird expert—so I hit Google, who seemed the more ornithologically-inclined of us three, and searched “سكسكة”.

Google then handed me over to Wikipedia where I found out that سكسكة is a common chiffchaff.

Now, this blog is not rebranding into some bird study (*flashback to my sister’s bird-migration-related master’s dissertation that I had to proofread on the day of her deadline*), so don’t worry. But there are some cool things to point out…

The name “chiffchaff” is an onomatopoeic name, given to the bird because of the sound of its song.

What’s interesting here is that—as we mentioned in Arabic Observations: Doubled Roots—reduplicated roots in Arabic (like س-ك-س-ك) often onomatopoetically mimic what they refer to.

So this bird has been named onomatopoetically in both languages.

(Another bird that comes to mind with a reduplicated root in Arabic is هُدهُد, the hoopoe, from the root ه-د-ه-د which refers to rocking a child.)

But wait—what does the root س-ك-س-ك mean?

Well in the Hans Wehr, we find a form II quadriliteral verb under the root: تَسَكسَكَ / يَتَسَكسَكُ, “to behave in a servile manner”.

I really know nothing about the behaviour of this bird (I might have to ask my aforementioned sister, who will undoubtedly tell me she was studying climate change and not the predisposition of bird species), so I’ve not got a clue whether it is remotely “servile”.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence. *shrugs*

!إلى اللقاء

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